Artist Nikki McClure breathes life into Rachel Carson’s contemplation of clouds.

On this week’s Fully Booked podcast, Nikki McClure discusses Something About the Sky (Candlewick Studio, March 12), a meditative new picture book featuring the skyward musings of environmental activist Rachel Carson (1907-1964).

McClure, who works from a home studio in Olympia, Washington, is the author/illustrator of many fine books for young readers, including Apple, What Will These Hands Make?, and 1, 2, 3 Salish Sea; as well as the illustrator of All in a Day by Cynthia Rylant and The Golden Thread: A Song for Pete Seeger by Colin Meloy. She calls Something About the Sky, “a book for wonderers”—and we agree wholeheartedly.

Here’s a bit from our starred review: “Originally written as a script for a children’s television show in 1956 and unpublished until 2021, Carson’s quietly eloquent essay offers a stirring mix of natural observations and insights. Our planet has two mighty oceans, she points out, both necessary for life. We live at the bottom of the one made of air, beneath clouds—described as ‘the writing of the wind on the sky’…Using sumi ink and washi paper with cut-paper overlays, McClure creates misty, evocative cloudscapes behind and above views of seas and mountains in various weathers and seasons, as well as spare glimpses of human figures.…Overall, the effect is solemn, stately…[and] bound to leave readers in a meditative mood.”

We begin by reminiscing over our last conversation, in 2018, ahead of the publication of The Golden Thread—remembering that McClure had shelved a personal project and turned to illustrating Meloy’s story about Pete Seeger in 2016 because “this dark cloud had parked over everyone and everything. And so it was a way to shoot a ray of light through that, to focus on this person who had persevered through similar times.” We explore the similarities between Seeger and Carson, and note how each used their voice to change the world for the better. McClure and I then discuss the provenance of the words that became Something About the Sky; a mind-bending truth expressed by Carson—that the world has two oceans, one of air and one of water; McClure’s experience as a sailor; natural navigator Tristan Gooley’s book The Secret World of Weather; the process of illustrating Something About the Sky; our favorite types of clouds; book launch party plans; and much more.

Then editors Mahnaz Dar, Eric Liebetrau, and Laurie Muchnick share their top picks in books for the week.

EDITORS’ PICKS:

The Last Zookeeper by Aaron Becker (Candlewick)

Jelly Roll Blues: Censored Songs & Hidden Histories by Elijah Wald (Hachette)

Mrs. Gulliver by Valerie Martin (Doubleday)

ALSO MENTIONED ON THIS EPISODE:

Animal Albums From A to Z by Cece Bell

Dylan Goes Electric!: Newport, Seeger, Dylan, and the Night That Split the Sixties by Elijah Wald

How the Beatles Destroyed Rock ’n’ Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music by Elijah Wald

3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool by James Kaplan

Poor Things, starring Emma Stone (film)

THANKS TO OUR SPONSORS:

Our Lesser Angels by Mary Frailey Calland

Diplomats & Admirals by Dale A. Jenkins

Message in a Bullet by Owen Thomas

The Limits of My World by Gregory Coles

The Goat Songs by James Najarian

Fully Booked is produced by Cabel Adkins Audio and Megan Labrise.